Impressions on B1 Machine

[Yoshiki Ohshima]

  Hi, Simon,

> the memory game started as a proof of concept and a demo tool in the 
> first place since it involves sound, graphics and the networking. I took 
> the latter out for btest1 since there were some network issues but I 
> count on having it back in btest2. It was also meant to have a demo for 
> showing sharing/joining of activities.

  Yes, I understand that part, but for having it as a top-level
accessible icon, it would be nice to have an answer for the question:
"what kind of educational value does it provide".

> I agree that in the end we want to have the kids developing those apps 
> themselves but there should be different layers of interacting in my 
> opinion. Some kids are happy to just play the game, some may want to use 
> a "create your game" tool where modules are provided like networking, 
> sound etc and some want to start from scratch and do some python coding.

  Ah, how would you evaluate Etoys for that purpose (for example)?  It
sure let you network collaborative game with sound in a very, very
accessible programming system.  (I see downsides, but the exercise is
left for readers^^)

> I think an environment to create a game would be nice. I have not had a 
> deep look but pygame might be too complex and not adopted to our 
> environment (please correct me if I am wrong). Maybe it would be good to 
> come up with a new environment adopted to our needs of 
> sharing/announcement and connecting to the sound facilities etc.

  I didn't exactly mean to have a game creation environment.  Rather a
"generaller-purpose" construction environment.  For learning math and
science for example, creating simulations would be helpful.  Games can
be made as by-product or spare time activity in such an environment, I
hope.

  Thank you!

-- Yoshiki